Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/201

 CALENDAR

167

CALENDAR

till 3 a. m.; and the third or morning watch till about 6 a. m. Seven consecutive days form the Week, or second element of the Jewish calendar. As in our ecclesiastical calendar, the days of the Jewish week are numbered, not named. They are called the first day, the second day, the third day, and so on to the seventh, which last is also called "sabbath" (n3S', shdbbath), a name likewise used to designate the week itself. The sixth day, our Friday, is also known in the Xew Testament, in Josephus, and in Rabbinical writings as "the eve of the sabbath", or as "the day of the preparation", the TvapaaKtv-ri, a term still em- ployed by the Latin Church in connexion with Good Friday (Cf. Mark. xv. 42; Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVI, vi, 2; Talmud of Jerusalem, Treatise PesShim, chap. iv. I).

The third and most important element in the Jew- ish arrangement of time is the Month. The two Hebrew words for month are m\ y(rdh, and l"in, hodesh, whose primitive meaning, "moon", "new moon", points to the dependence of the Jewish month on the phases of the moon. As a matter of fact, the Hebrew months have always been lunar, and extended from one new moon to another. The beginning of the month with the appearance of the new moon was — as it is still — of great practical im- portance among the Hebrews, inasmuch as the first of every month was to be observed as Xew Moon's Day, and certain feasts were affixed to the 10th, 14th, or other days of the month. The earliest appear- ance of the new moon was long ascertained by direct observation, and authoritatively settled by a com- mission of the Sanhedrin, and the intelligence then made known to the Jews at large, first by means of fire-signals, and later on through special messengers. In the present day, and for many centuries, this very primitive manner of fixing the beginning of the month has given way to a systematic calculation of the lat- ter's duration, and the Jewish calendar is now con- structed on the basis of a mean lunation of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 min., and 3J sec. Besides being indicated

by means of numerals, the first month, the second month, etc., the del new months have been designated in the course of Jewish history by two sets of names. Of the former set — going back probably to Chanaanite times — only four names have survived in the Hebrew Bible. These are: IT3X, 'Abhibh (A.V.Ex., xiii, 4, xxiii. 15; I)eut.,xvi, 1), subsequently the first month; ''.'/.in- (111 K.,_ vi, 1), subsequently the second month; D'JDX, 'Etkantm (III K.. viii. 2), subsequently the seventhmonth; and*>,3, BfiMTLl K., vi, 38), subse- quently the eighth month. The latter set of names, certainly of Babylonian origin, began to be used after the Exile. Of its twelve names now found in the Jewish calendar only seven occur in the Hebrew text, but the whole twelve appear as the main divisions of the Meyillath To' anith (Scroll of Fasting), which in its original form is referred to a date before the Christian Era. These twelve names are as follows: l.Nisan (Neheni.,ii, 1 ; Esth.,iii,7); 2. Vj/i/dr (not named in Scripture); 3.Siwd?i (Esth.,viii, 9;Baruch,i,8); 4. TdmmCU (Cf. AY.' Ezech., viii, 14); 5. 'Abh (not named in Scripture); 6. 'Eti'tl (Nehem., vi, 15; I Mach.. xiv, 27); 7. Tishri (not named in Scripture); 8. Mdrhi shwun. or simply llcxliwan (not named in Scripture) ; 9. Kislew (Zach., vii. 1 ; Nehem., i, 1); 10. Tebhclh (Esth.. ii, 16); 11. Shcbhat (Zach., i, 7; I Macl,.. xvi. 14); 12. 'Adar (I Esdras, vi, 15; Esth., iii, 7, viii, 12, etc.).

The twelve months thus named made up the ordi- nary Year (nx", shanah), or next important ele- ment in the Jewish calendar. As they were lunar months they formed a mean year of 354 days, a year consequently shorter than the solar year by ten or eleven days. This difference, as can be readily seen, would have, in the course of time, completely disordered the months in relation to the seasons of the year; thus the first month, or Xtsdn (cor- responding to the end of March or the beginning of April), in the middle of which the first ripe barley was to be presented to Yahweh in con- nexion with the paschal feast (Ex., xii, 1 sqq., xiii,

THE JEWISH CALENDAR

Hebrew Month

Nisan. P'3

■Iyyir, VK

Stwan, \V0

Tammdz, IIDn

'Abh, 3X 'EMI. ?li>S

Tishri. nCTI Marheshnan (H&hwan),

Kislew, l^DD

Tebheth, J13U Shebbat. OX* •A.lar. TIN [We-'Adar], mxi

(Inter-

■ alary i

Durins; 20th cen- tury first of mont occurs between

30 March 13-April 11

April 12-May 11 May 1 1-June 9 June 10-July 9

July 9-Aug. 7 Aug. 8-Sept. 6

Sept. 6-Oct. 5

Oct. 6-Nov. 4 Nov. 4-Dec. 3

Dec. 4-Jan. 2 Jan. 2-Jan. 31

29 + 30-

29

30

Feb. 1-Hareh J

(...)

(29)

March 3-March 13

354

384

Principal I easts

1 New Moon I 14. Paschal lamb killed ! L5-21. Paschal Feast , (KirMfruits of barley I offered) 1 New Moon 11. Second Passover (Num., ix, 10, 11) 1. New Moon ■j 6. Pentecost. (Firstfruits { of wheat harvesl I

i 1. New Moon ■ 7. Fast. Taking of Jeru- salem by Titus New Moon

Fast. Destruction of the Temple

Mo

I 1. Ne

i 2 New ^ ear's 1 ee I ", Hi 1 >:i v of Atonement

1 L5-21. Feast of Tab

1 1 n-tfruits of

I. wine and oil)

New Moon

Feast of the Dedica- tion <>f the Temple New Moon

Fast. Sie^e of Jerusa- salem

Mo New Moon

i t of Purim New Moon 15 Feast of Purim